I was 
recently getting some work done at a Starbucks (my second home lately!), and I overheard someone talking to a recruiter on the phone. The guy was distressed about a recent interview he had for an IT position. The employer had said that, although he gave a great interview, he didn’t have the exact experience required for the position. He seemed very frustrated.
He then when on to ask the recruiter in a flustered tone, “Do they want a problem solver or a robot? Just because I haven’t done that job before, doesn’t mean I can’t learn it. I have the proper education that proves I’m capable of it.”
He brings up a great question. Is it right, or even ethical, that employers seem to prefer a robot-like employee who has done a job a million times and can do it blindfolded? Or should they simply target candidates who are great problem solvers, eager to learn and adapt to new tasks?
This is an excellent question. What do you think? As the Svedka Vodka marketing team would ask, “Are you ’bot or not?”
I personally have not had this issue come up, but I’ve seen it happen to my peers. It seems like it all boils down to companies wanting to save time and money by employing an experienced person vs. hiring someone new they might have to train.
What they fail to realize is that us 20 something, Gen Y’ers are NOT robots.
You make a good point. I just checked out your blog. Where are you stationed for peace corp??!?!
I think part of the problem may be that the people hiring IT folk are not always IT themselves. I got lucky with my current boss – the CTO. He knew the right questions to ask and knew how to interpret my answers.
Often, however, you have recruiters who have been given a list questions and expected answers. For example, they might ask “Do you have experience with MySQL” and the candidate might answer and say “No, but I know Oracle.” The recruiter will probably not even realize that they’re both similar databases (Oracle just bought MySQL actually). However, if the recruiter asks “Do you know JavaScript?” and the candidate answers “No, but I know Java” the recruiter might think that’s good enough (java is to javascript the way car is to carpet – they’re not the same at all).
Sometimes the recruiting is enough to make a candidate feel like a disposable cog. Though, sometimes companies really do think of IT folk as just that. http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html <– a favorite of mine. Thanks for the post Michelle.
Dave, You make very good points. That’s why I think it is important for candidates to go through several interviews–HR, their potential supervisor, and perhaps even the person who would work side by side with them once they are hired (a person who would know exactly what skills they needed to have to meet their objectives and mesh with the team).
i learned a lot from this post..thanks
No problem!
I actually had this happen to me just recently for a job I interviewed for. I didn’t have the exact experience required for the position, but it’s not brain surgery and I know I can do it. And it’s industry specific so I can’t get experience unless I’m in the industry (hotel) but hotels don’t hire people who don’t have hotel or loads of customer service experience. Even though people talk a lot about the changing job market, I don’t think employers got the memo.
Totally! That is unfortunate, but how many companies work. In this economy, there are so many qualified applicants, that this is even more true. But keep on hunting! Recent grads are valuable because they have yet to be “molded” or “jaded.”